Working Mothers Become An Increasingly Accepted Social Norm

Family life is a delicate ground nowadays, as a high economic status is very hard to achieve in times of crisis and people tend to concentrate more on building a career rather than settle down and enjoy a calm and satisfying family environment. Maybe this is the reason why millennials tend to be more accepting of working mothers nowadays than previous generations were. Hard times ask for tolerance and this translates into a higher degree of assimilation for working mothers all across the US.

The views of young people born between 1980 and 2000 reflect an increasing tolerance of gender equality all over the world. This attitudes are highly related to an individualist perspective rather than one that focuses on adherence to social rules. People became more open minded as they need to adapt to new ways in which life unfolds inside the brave new world in the making.

The findings are based on two surveys extended over a period of almost 30 years. The first one involved 12th graders in the US while the other included adults only. After comparing the results, researchers have managed to gain a much better understanding on how perceptions on American women’s role in the workplace and family altogether have changed over the last decades.

It seems that Americans who entered adulthood in the 2000 are extremely supportive of working moms, compared to previous generations surveyed at the same age. In the 70’s perceptions over equality, equity and tolerance were different, as 59% of high school graduates were inclined to believe that small children would suffer deeply if their mothers worked outside the home. At the same time, the inner workings of the world were extremely different back then, when feminism and open debates on gender equality and equality of chances were far from being hot topics all over the liberated world.

Times have changed dramatically and the following studies show that by the 2010’s, less than one quarter of undergraduates felt that working mothers were a social problem that must be reconsidered.

The entire study can be read in the magazine Psychology of Women Quarterly that displays the results of a detailed research that surveyed almost 600.000 respondents. In 2010, 22% of 12th graders thought young children suffered when their mothers went to work, down from 34% in the 1990s and 59% in the 1970’s. Working mothers become an increasingly accepted social norm, offering communities the chance to envision a future where constraints and biases are no longer an option.